Page:Sushruta Samhita Vol 1.djvu/443

Chap.XXXVII.] be culled from a ground permeated with the essential virtues of fire, sky and air.

Herbs exercising both purgative and emetic virtues should be culled from ground exhibiting features common to both the two aforesaid classes of soil. Similarly, herbs possessed of soothing properties (Sanshamanam)* are found to exert a stronger action in the event of their being reared on a soil permeated with the essential properties of sky.

All medicinal herbs and substances should be used as fresh as possible, excepting Pippali, Vidanga, Madhu, Guda, and Ghritam, (which should be used in a matured condition i.e. not before a year). The milky juice or sap of a medicinal tree or plant should be regarded as strong and active under all circumstances. Herbs and drugs, that had been culled or collected within the year, might be taken and used in making up a medicinal recipe in a case where fresh ones would not be available.

Authoritative Verses on the Subject:—Medicinal herbs and plants should be recognised and identified with the help of cowherds, hermits, huntsmen, forest-dwellers, and those who cull the fruits and edible roots of the forest. No definite time can be laid down for the culling of the leaves and roots of